Vermont, 2026-27 season year

Vermont Bear Season 2026-27

Q: When does bear season open in Vermont in 2026-27?

Early Season: September 1, 2026 to November 13, 2026. Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department publishes these dates and the full zone tables on this page were read from its own page on September 19, 2026.

Q: Does Vermont have a spring bear season in 2027?

No. Vermont holds no spring bear season. The 2026 Vermont Black Bear Seasons guide dates only the Early Season from September 1 and the Late Season in November. Spring bear seasons are mostly a western pattern, and the national page lists the states that hold one in 2027.

Q: Who publishes guidance on living with bears in Vermont?

Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, on its page titled Living with Black Bears, which is linked from the agency notice on this page. That page is the agency's own guidance for Vermont residents on attractants, encounters and who to call, and its sentence on fall activity is quoted verbatim beside the link, read on September 19, 2026.

Q: Where are the rest of the Vermont bear hunting rules?

At Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, whose regulations page is linked on this page. Those rules are legally binding, change annually and vary by zone and land ownership; the permit and tag system, zone maps, methods and reporting requirements are all published there. This page carries the season windows themselves, with the source page and read date attached.

By late August, bears seek foods with the highest nutritional value. In an effort to store as much energy as possible, they will eat up to 24 hours a day. If beechnuts and acorns are plentiful, bears will move into productive beech and oak stands and consume high quantities of the nuts.

Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department

Early Season: September 1, 2026 to November 13, 2026. People report black bears in Vermont most in May, and 20 percent of all reports fall in September, October and November. Everything below is Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department’s own words and dates, read on September 19, 2026, beside the record of what people reported.

This page covers the 2026-27 season year. Dates were read from the agency sources linked below, last checked September 19, 2026. Seasons change annually and agencies correct their own pages; confirm against the linked agency page before you hunt.

September 1, 2026 to November 13, 2026

Early Season

published

No season

Archery bear season

no season

No season

Spring bear season

no season

May

Busiest reported month

1,755 reports on record

Fall activity

When black bears are most active in Vermont

The department says black bears inhabit most of the state other than the Champlain Islands, with one of the densest populations in the country at approximately one bear for every three square miles, most common in the Green Mountains and Northeast Kingdom. Its 2026 season guide says recent population estimates have risen beyond the 4,000 to 6,500 range of the past thirty years.

The bars count research grade American black bear observations people uploaded to iNaturalist for Vermont, by calendar month, across every year the platform holds. The busiest month in the record is May, and reports drop below 40 percent of that peak by October. The drop into winter reflects bears denning and fewer people outdoors in equal measure, which is why the agency’s sentences below, not the curve, carry the timing.

1,755 research grade American black bear observations have been uploaded to iNaturalist for Vermont across every year the platform holds, and 20 percent of them fall in the three shaded fall months. The busiest month in the record is May, and reports drop below 40 percent of that peak by October. These are counts of what people reported, so they measure observers as well as bears; they are not a population, not a survey and not a statement about this autumn. See the records on iNaturalist.

Research grade black bear reports uploaded for Vermont by year, 2016 to 2025: 68 in 2016 and 231 in 2025. Most of the climb is the platform itself growing, and every species on it shows the same shape, so this is a record of reporting rather than a population trend.

What Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department says

Fall feeding

By late August, bears seek foods with the highest nutritional value. In an effort to store as much energy as possible, they will eat up to 24 hours a day. If beechnuts and acorns are plentiful, bears will move into productive beech and oak stands and consume high quantities of the nuts.

Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

Denning

Food supplies are the most critical factor determining when bears den in the fall. When foods are abundant, bears will continue eating throughout the snows of November and into December. When fall foods are scarce, most bears den by mid-November.

Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

When conflicts and sightings rise

The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department is receiving reports of bears coming out of their dens and is urging Vermonters to remove their birdfeeders and take additional steps now to prevent conflicts with bears over the spring and summer.

Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

A young black bear resting its chin on a bare dead branch in a green hardwood forest, ears forward, looking at the camera — A young black bear on a dead limb in the hardwoods. In the eastern forests the fall feeding season runs on acorns and beechnuts, which is why the agency sentences quoted on these pages talk about hard mast and mast years. Photo: Courtney Celley, USFWS. “Black Bear (20083897724)”, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region, Public domain

Hunting dates

Vermont bear seasons, 2026-27

Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department dates American black bear seasons under its own names, and each is below under that name with the zone rows exactly as the agency lists them, the source page linked beside each table, and the date it was read.

Early Season

published

Early Season is OPEN now, through November 13, 2026.

Vermont early season, as published by Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department
Zone	Opens	Closes	Notes
Statewide	September 1, 2026	November 13, 2026

Dates read from 2026 Vermont Black Bear Seasons, Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, accessed 2026-09-19.

Vermont's Early Season opens September 1 and runs through the day before the 16-day November regular deer season. A separately named Late Season then covers the first nine days of the regular deer season and is listed under other seasons, along with the department's two dog windows.

Archery bear season

no season

Vermont holds no separately dated archery bear season. Vermont dates no separate archery bear season. The department's 2026 seasons table lists only the Early Season, the Late Season and the two dog windows for black bear. Source: Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department.

Spring bear season

no season

Vermont holds no spring bear season. Vermont holds no spring bear season. The 2026 Vermont Black Bear Seasons guide dates only the Early Season from September 1 and the Late Season in November. Source: Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department.

Other Vermont bear seasons the agency names

Late Season

published

Late Season opens in 32 days, on November 14, 2026.

Vermont late season, as published by Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department
Zone	Opens	Closes	Notes
Statewide	November 14, 2026	November 22, 2026

Dates read from 2026 Vermont Black Bear Seasons, Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, accessed 2026-09-19.

The Late Season covers the first nine days of the 16-day November regular deer season, per the 2026 guide and the department's seasons table.

Black Bear Hunters with use of dogs by permit

published

Black Bear Hunters with use of dogs by permit is OPEN now in the Resident Black Bear Hunters with use of dogs by permit, through November 22, 2026, with 2 zone segments open.

Vermont black bear hunters with use of dogs by permit, as published by Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department
Zone	Opens	Closes	Notes
Resident Black Bear Hunters with use of dogs by permit	September 1, 2026	November 22, 2026
Nonresident Black Bear Hunters with use of dogs by permit	September 15, 2026	November 22, 2026

Dates read from 2026 Vermont Black Bear Seasons, Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, accessed 2026-09-19.

The department's 2026 seasons table dates the dog windows as two separate rows, one for resident hunters and one for nonresident hunters, whose window opens two weeks later.

The agency's own season sentence

Early Season: September 1, 2026 through November 13, 2026.

Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

Current Vermont regulations

Permit and tag requirements, zone maps, permitted methods, tagging and reporting, and everything else a bear hunter is bound by for Vermont are set by Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, are legally binding and change annually. Its current regulations page is linked here.

Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department: current regulations

A black bear track pressed into wet grey mud, five rounded toes in an arc above a broad pad, with a second fainter print beside it — A black bear track in mud in Shenandoah National Park. Tracks, scat, turned over logs and claw marks on smooth beech bark are the sign most people meet in the fall woods, weeks before they meet the bear. Photo: M. Punches, NPS. “Black Bear Track in Mud (44654784885)”, ShenandoahNPS, Public domain

Bear season in other states

Vermont deer seasonArchery, firearms, muzzleloader and youth deer windows for 2026-27, under the same sourcing rules.Vermont small game seasonPheasant, quail, grouse, rabbit and squirrel openers, read from the same agency.Vermont foraging calendarThe acorns, beechnuts and berries the agency names as fall bear food are the same mast a forager follows.

An adult black bear standing on a broken limb high in a hardwood tree above two small cubs, all three looking down — A mother black bear and two cubs of the year in a hardwood tree. The denning sentences quoted on the state pages describe when family groups like this one go to ground, and it moves by weeks between a Gulf Coast winter and a northern one. Photo: Courtney Celley, USFWS. “Black Bear Family (20083894064)”, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region, Public domain

Vermont bear season questions

When are black bears most active in Vermont in the fall?

In the observation record for Vermont, research grade black bear reports peak in May and 20 percent of all 1,755 reports fall in September, October and November. Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department describes the fall feeding period in its own words, quoted on this page with a link to the page it came from. Reports count people as well as bears, so the shape of the curve is the useful part and the exact numbers are not.

When does bear season open in Vermont in 2026-27?

Does Vermont have a spring bear season in 2027?

When do black bears go into dens in Vermont?

Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department describes the denning timing for Vermont in the sentence quoted on this page, read on September 19, 2026 from the page linked beside it. In the observation record, reports fall below 40 percent of the May peak by October and reach their low in January. That drop reflects bears denning and fewer people outdoors in equal measure, which is why the agency's sentence, not the curve, is the denning answer.

Are black bear sightings in Vermont increasing?

The number of research grade black bear reports uploaded for Vermont went from 68 in 2016 to 231 in 2025. Most of that rise is the platform itself growing, since every species on iNaturalist shows the same climb, so the year bars on this page are a record of reporting rather than a population trend. Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department describes when sightings and conflicts rise in Vermont in the sentence quoted on this page.

Who publishes guidance on living with bears in Vermont?

Where are the rest of the Vermont bear hunting rules?

A brown wooden Bear Country sign with a white bear pictogram and a red band, on two posts at the edge of a lodgepole pine campground in low sun — A Bear Country sign at Indian Creek Campground, Yellowstone. The land manager writes the rules on the board, and they change by campground and by season: food storage orders, closed drainages, and whether a soft sided tent is allowed at all. “Bear Country Sign for Indian Creek (14457698423)”, Yellowstone National Park from Yellowstone NP, USA, Public domain

A snow covered track running between pines bent low under heavy snow, with a strip of blue sky above — Midwinter at Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, Maine. This is denning season in the north; each agency's own sentence on when its bears enter and leave their dens is quoted on the state pages, and the month bars show the reports thinning to match. “Winter at Moosehorn (11714166893)”, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Northeast Region, Public domain

This page covers the 2026-27 season year with agency data read on September 19, 2026 and an iNaturalist record to September 19, 2026. Every sentence about bear behaviour is Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department’s own, quoted exactly with a link to its page; every season window is republished from the agency page linked beside it, and windows the agency had not yet published are labelled not yet published. The month bars count what members of the public reported and are not a population. See also the national bear season guide.